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Some Types of Modern Educa- 
tional Theory 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION 

Number VI 



Some Types of Modern 
Educational Theory 



y 



BY 

ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 



CHICAGO 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 

1902 



IbiOlS 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Cop(E8 Received 

MAY. 19 t902 

COPVHIQHT ENTRY 

CLASS «/XXc. No. 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1902, by 

The University of Chicago 

chicago, ill. 



Contributions to Education 

Number VI 



INTRODUCTION. 

The iconoclastic impulse is given less play 
today in the educational field than in the sev- 
enties and eighties of the nineteenth century. 
The converse, however, is not true, for the 
conservative impulse is restricted in its activity. 
The stir of life in education itself is not dimin- 
ished, but increased. The spirit is changed ; 
no longer is it either destructive or preserva- 
tive ; it is both constructive and effective. 

One fruitful cause of this new attitude of the 
spirit of education is the introduction of sci- 
entific method into its modes of experimenta- 
tion and generalization. The scientist does not 
pose as a reformer or a destroyer; neither does 
he conserve the past as an object of worship. 
He does not mistake crudity for originality; 
neither does he fail in responsiveness to intel- 
ligent means directed toward the attainment 
of noble ends. 

The fact that the educational theories and 
practices of America were founded on those of 
Europe explains in a measure the ready acqui- 
escence of her people in many undigested sug- 
gestions that have in large percentages resulted 
disastrously. The lack of a national perspec- 
7 



8 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

tive in education explains to some extent the 
attitude of indiscriminate admiration for Ger- 
man theory, which for a time characterized 
some teachers who were conscious of the bar- 
renness of the educational highway in their 
native land. Some day there will be written 
an account of the movement that carried young 
men from America to Jena to observe and 
study. Those students of education returned 
home enthusiastic yet serious investigators of 
the problems of education, and the influence 
of their practical work is felt, not only in the 
normal schools with which they identified 
themselves, but in many public elementary 
schools. 

The psychology of America, like the phi- 
losophy, was until recent date the restatement 
of English thought, tinctured with Puritanism. 
Here again there are still large possibilities for 
research and reconstruction. German, French, 
and English theories and laboratory experi- 
mentation have been utilized by the American 
in his investigations of the method of mind 
activity, and the conclusions have been worked 
over and made valuable in the conscious work 
of mental development in the class-room. The 
marked influence of attention in the schools of 
this country to the psychologic foundations of 
education was evidenced very fully in the re- 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 9 

cent Paris Exposition. In a critical review of 
the material in the educational section at the 
exposition this feature of the work in Ameri- 
can schools is discussed : 

The great aim in French teaching is the logical 
treatment of the subject Our work, on the con- 
trary, showed an unmistakable regard for the psycho- 
logic state or the order of mental growth. Hence our 
great advantage in dealing with the beginnings of 
knowledge that relate themselves particularly to sense- 
impressions ; as ascent is made to the stage of pure 
mentality or ideation at which the mind develops through 
its reflective activity, a degree of uncertainty, both in 
method and aim, was noticeable in our work.* 

There are not as yet sufficient data to de- 
termine to what degree the sociologic strand 
has influenced education in this country; we 
can as yet speak in a general way only of 
the school as a social institution and a social 
center. 

An approach toward the method of science 
in experimenting and theorizing, a study of 
educational method from the standpoint of 
Herbart and Froebel, a utilization of the teach- 
ings of psychology, a recognition of the social 
self as comprehensive of the past of society — 
all tend toward the evolution of a higher ideal 
of the possibilities in education. But with the 

' Anna Tolman Smith, Educational Review, September, 
1901. 



10 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

development of the idea of popular education, 
the old conception of education could not be 
simply enriched with the new element ; it was 
necessarily constructed anew so that it should 
function effectively in the concept of the state 
which has been evolved by the genius of the 
American people. The new conception con- 
tains elements which were not an integral part 
of the old ; it also symbolizes the law of 
activity in human development. 

A large body of the new elements originate 
in the conception of the intelligible unity of 
the conscious life of each and every soul. In 
that life there are two distinct forms of expe- 
rience — the individual and the racial. Out of 
the expanded idea of individual experience 
come those generalizations which are based on 
the interaction between the psychic powers 
and the physical organism. Stated on the 
organic side, the results of the interaction may 
be gathered up in a few terse sentences: " Edu- 
cation consists in modifications of the central 
nervous system;"' "The training of the life 
of bodily movements is a most important part 
of education ; ""^ "The spiritual individuality of 
the soul builds its body and uses it in interac- 
tion with the world, in perception and in voli- 

^ Donaldson, The Growth of the Brain, p. 336. 

»Ladd, Descriptive Psychology, p. 123. 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory ii 

tion." ' On the psychic side the results are 
stated in "the law of sensori-motor associa- 
tion, i. e., every mental state is a complex of 
sensori and motor elements, and any influence 
which strengthens the one tends to strengthen 
the other."'' Out of the conception of racial 
experience has come an idea of play which 
makes it basal in the evolution of those poten- 
tialities which have their impulses in the aes- 
thetic pleasures. There have also come, in 
addition to the ideas derived through the in- 
fluence of the liberal arts, conceptions of the 
evolution of the useful arts as important fac- 
tors in education. 

With the new concept of education symbol- 
izing the law of activity in human develop- 
ment, the whole question of the organization 
of the family and the school, the mutual rela- 
tion of parents and children, of teachers and 
pupils, has been opened up and a search insti- 
tuted to discover whether or no there exists a 
law of nature for the individual alongside the 
law for the family and the school. The 
experimental work in this investigation is 
conducted under various names, such as "the 
school city," "student control," "self-gov- 
ernment," "the community life of the school." 

'Harris, Psychologic Foundations of Education, p. 92. 
2 Baldwin, Mental Development, p. 463. 



12 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

With these new conceptual elements as funda- 
mental there have been evolved several theories 
or philosophies of education which, though 
having a broad foundation of identity, are 
individual. Through each there runs a prin- 
ciple, a thread of life, which differentiates it 
from the others. Though in the beginnings 
there are common characteristics, yet, as each 
theory progresses, the significance of those 
characters changes, in some cases becoming 
less stable, and in others becoming more 
defined, more stable, thus making the theory 
distinctive, typical. 

This study has only one aim, i. e., to pro- 
ject, as it were, the vital principle in each 
theory and its determining influence on 
the signification of the common elements in 
the fundamentals from which each is 
evolved. No comparison as to relative 
values will be attempted. Without doubt, a 
comparative analysis would be valuable, but 
not at this early day before practice has had 
opportunity to perform its function to the 
full. Fortunately, the writers whose works 
and theories form the subject of this analysis 
are not disciples of Pestalozzi, Herbart, or 
Froebel ; neither, on the other hand, are they 
merely philosophers or normal-school teach- 
ers, speculating in the chair of philosophy of 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 13 

a university, or theorizing in the superin- 
tendent's office in a normal school or system 
of schools. The thought of each, as ex- 
pressed, pulsates with that life and vigor 
which come from the action and reaction of 
theory and practice upon each other. 

University of Chicago, 
January 15, 1902. 



SOME TYPES OF MODERN 
EDUCATIONAL THEORY. 

I. PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING, 1891. 
Arnold Tompkins. 

This theory is considered first in this brief 
study, not only because it was perfected and 
presented to the reading public at an earlier 
date than the others, but also because it is a 
marvelous bridge between the old education 
and the new. Its author is not merely 
acquainted with Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel ; 
he has "become one with them," and out of 
his reflections on their subtle discussions has 
formulated his solution of the problems of 
life. That solution is a philosophy which 
serves as a means by which he can project the 
rationale of any phase of activity in the many 
departments of human endeavor. 

Happily for the schools of this country, the 
particular process to which Mr. Tompkins has 
made the application of his philosophy is that 
of teaching. Unhappily, this book is a sealed 
one for many teachers. It is couched in a 
form of expression peculiarly philosophical, 
and to this there is such rigorous adherence 
15 



1 6 Some Types of Modej-n Educational Theory 

that one class of readers loses heart in the 
effort to penetrate the Hegelian-like struc- 
ture • while another class, like the members of 
the original philosophic clubs in this country 
who thought they understood Hegel when 
they were able to manipulate his terminology, 
revels in the conceit that it has the author's 
meaning because it can deftly turn his phrases. 
This philosophy of teaching is not a something 
which "he who runs may read," but it is a 
something which he who ponders will find to 
be a well-spring of thought. 

The "central point of view" from which the 
teaching process is analyzed and constructed 
again and again is that which recognizes a 
universal law, truth, spirit, as abiding i7i nature 
and man, and manifesting itself through them, 
in the order of the world. 

To be in harmony, in unity, with this imma- 
nent spirit that is back of the phenomena 
which we call the world is to be on the 
heights. "Education is, by systematic plan 
and purpose, to develop the individual into a 
capacity for living in conscious unity with 
the sustaining power of the universe" — the 
abiding universal law or spirit. Although the 
unity of God, man, and nature is the funda- 
mental concept on which this theory of edu- 
cation rests, yet in the analysis of the aim of 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 17 

teaching the emphasis is thrown so heavily 
upon the "soul in conflict with its own con- 
tent" that the dichotomy between body and 
mind, between nature and spirit, which was 
basic in the theory and practice of the old 
education, is recognized as effective here, even 
if the demand for unity be iterated and reit- 
erated. 

The failure of Mr. Tompkins to grasp the 
principle underlying the evolution of the 
powers of each human being through the 
sensori-motor function in the construction of 
things that have significance in the industrial 
environment, leaves his theory resting in one 
part on the foundation laid for the old educa- 
tion. He calls attention, however, to the two 
channels in which educational effort moves — 
the industrial and the cultural. Upon reading 
this one expects to get at the means by which 
the industries help to develop physical free- 
dom, but learns instead that "this freedom is 
secured through the form of industrial life, by 
which the whole world is made into a complex 
unity of interdependencies. This unity is 
made possible by the knowledge formulated a7id 
preserved in the subjects of the school curricu- 
lum." In this we find the theory of the old 
education revivified and beautified ; it is very 
much like the new geography which is taught 



1 8 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

in teachers' institutes. That new geography 
in most cases is the old geography with new 
material presented in an interesting way, not a 
study of man and earth as "two poles of 
energy." 

In this philosophy of teaching, while the 
development of mankind along industrial 
lines is recognized, the development of the 
individual through constructive industry is 
ignored. This non-recognition of the develop- 
ment of man through his personal activities 
comes Out in the statement that "the indus- 
trial unit would be instantly destroyed were a 
knowledge of geography obliterated." To say, 
"the pupil craves the living thought, which 
is the earth, because this living thought is his 
other and true self," is to express, in a beau- 
tiful form, a great truth ; but before the ego 
knows this living thought to be his alter in all 
its fulness, there must be positive exertion in 
manipulating and getting control of this 
other ; or, to express it in another way, it is 
through the exercise of the constructive 
power that the materials with their varied 
qualities are so known as to be a part of the 
worker. Without doubt Mr. Tompkins, with 
his strong and original personality, will put 
his pupils in touch with the subject-matter in 
a remarkable degree, but his philosophy of 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 19 

teaching will not put them in unified relations 
with the physical world through physical 
freedom. The day is far distant, however, 
when there will be general acceptance of the 
necessity of the strand in education which has 
been overlooked in the theory under con- 
sideration ; Aristotle taught that to appreciate 
music fully one need not become a skilled 
musician, but he must be a performer on a 
musical instrument. 

On the other hand, this theory rests upon 
principles which are basic in the new educa- 
tion. Throughout everything that Mr. Tomp- 
kins writes there is an insistence upon the 
child's and the teacher's having something to 
give which is the result of the giver's think- 
ing. There is also a deep comprehension of 
the community ideal in the demand that in the 
expression of thought the speaker or the 
writer must have, not only a great idea surging 
for utterance, but also a constant recognition 
of another mind to be reached by the thought 
expressed. If, in the efforts in the schools to 
make the boys and girls in the school con- 
scious of their citizenship in a community, this 
give-and-take responsibility were accented 
rather than the forms of social organization, 
the results would be less transitory. 



20 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

In a second volume^ the social aspect of the 
school is considered under the title The hiflu- 
ence of Social Combination. The section is a 
successful attempt to make the social virtues 
an organic, vital part of the ethical ideal which 
is the aim for the attainment of which society 
and its institution called the school strive. 
It is a marked advance on the old method of 
setting virtues up in isolation, as things which 
in themselves are inherently good. The treat- 
ment throughout is from the functional stand- 
point. The discussion starts out with a recog- 
nition of the complexity and unity of society, 
and then lays upon the individual the require- 
ment of the fundamental law of social life, 
which is that "the individual conduct himself 
so as to preserve intact the social whole." 
With the law functioning to maintain the unity 
of the school, the social virtues — politeness, 
order, truthfulness, industry, justice, altruism, 
and rational freedom — are all organized to work 
together in realizing the aim of the law. Each 
of these virtues is subjected to an analysis of 
the most practical nature possible. The posi- 
tive and the negative factors which make the 
special virtue undergoing analysis effective or 
ineffective are brought out by the artistic 
touch with which Mr. Tompkins so easily pro- 

» Tompkins, School Management, 1895. 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 21 

jects those everyday situations which are 
sometimes elevating, often ridiculous. In the 
consideration of politeness he says : 

It is impolite to read a newspaper in church while the 
pastor is preaching, because he is thus treated as an 
unworthy pastor, and the congregational unity is dis- 
turbed. 

It seems almost as if the unity which is 
the ideal for which the fundamental law func- 
tions is held up to ridicule in this situation 
which possibly has never obtained in any 
church at any time. 

But this is a minor matter compared with 
the volumes of wise counsel condensed in a 
few lines on the question of obedience which 
is treated under rational freedom. No writer 
on education has ever taken higher ground 
than Mr. Tompkins ; in fact, few have taken as 
high ground as he occupies in the treatment 
of so simple a matter as that of a child chang- 
ing from an uncomfortable to a comfortable 
place in the schoolroom : 

For the child sitting by the stove to move, without 
permission, because too warm, is better than to move 
with permission. Under such circumstances pupils are 
sometimes ordered back to remain until they get per- 
mission from headquarters. The pupil then raises the 
hand ; the teacher nods consent ; then matters are in 
good condition because the pupil has rendered obedi- 
ence to authority. But such obedience contains no power 



22 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

of self-direction, whereas such power would be cultivated 
if the pupil debate the question and decide for himself. 
This idea of obedience to a teacher is full of mischief. 
The pupil should obey the law inherent in the case, 
which he himself is able to expound and set up as his 
only master. In an important sense the pupil should 
do as he pleases. The teacher must let him alone and 
watch his actions and tendencies. 

The oft-repeated condemnation of "ap- 
petites, desires, impulses, prejudices, and 
whatever in the lower world contends for sway 
in the realm of man's being," and the many 
summons to spirituality touch a responsive 
chord in the readers, particularly in those who 
have devoted their lives to teaching. 

A great truth is implicit in the title of Mr. 
Tompkins's book. The Philosophy of Teaching. 
Many writers discuss the question of teaching, 
trying to decide whether it is a science or an 
art ; but this one proclaims it to be more than 
either taken alone ; and in the development of 
this position, the logical and the psychological 
order of learning, the material with which 
mind works, and the part the teaching mind 
plays in the process, are all studied in the 
philosophic spirit. 



II. AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION, 

1897. 
Mary R. Alling-Aber. 

The experiment that furnishes the title for 
this book was tried in the early eighties in 
Boston and Englewood, but the theory under- 
lying it was not published in its entirety until 
1897. It is with the theory that this study is 
particularly concerned. 

It may be well in passing to call attention 
to the tribute Mrs. Alling-Aber pays inciden- 
tally, possibly unconsciously, to the school in 
which she underwent training, preparatory to 
teaching. Pages on the quality of the work 
done in that school, and on the possibilities of 
development for the students in a good school 
of education, might not contain more positive 
testimony than does the one sentence in the 
preface wherein the author speaks of "a tend- 
ency previously formed — during a course at 
the Oswego State Normal School — to watch 
the pupil's mind more than the subject being 
taught." 

Mrs. Alling-Aber has not evolved a theory 
and then applied it to education. Her method 
of procedure has been similar to that of all other 
23 



24 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

women who have endeavored to project a bet- 
ter theory in society, in the home, or in the 
school. Individual conditions have first com- 
manded their attention and, after experimen- 
tation, have indicated to the investigators laws 
which are involved in the complicated situa- 
tion with which they are endeavoring to cope. 
It is somewhat interesting to inquire as to the 
cause of this holding aloof at first from gen- 
eral notions and even finally failing to formu- 
late a theory which is instrumental in bringing 
conditions under comprehensive law. Is the 
cause in a peculiarity of the mental movement 
of woman, or is it rather in the absence of 
opportunity heretofore to pursue the study of 
philosophy in other than a moralizing fashion? 
Co-educational universities are now giving the 
same training in philosophy to women that 
men receive. In time, they will be able to cast 
light on this question and its answer. 

This question has been suggested because of 
the fact that, although an intense sympathy 
and understanding of children are the motiva- 
tion of the experiments described, yet the 
movement of the writer's mind is distinctively 
logical. The development of power in the 
free play of thought peculiar to the human mind 
is urged as the great end of education : 

Is not the human mind naturally capable of trust- 



Some Types of Modem Edt^ational Theory 25 

worthy action, and is not the lack of such action in the 
average adult due to faulty education? To see clearly, 
judge fairly, and will strongly — are not these the great 
ends of education ? Should not a man have as great a 
consciousness of mind and of power to think as he has 
of hands and feet and power to use them ; and should 
he not be as unerring in the right use of the one as of 
the others ? Should not the schools give this con- 
sciousness and power and mental skill, and also fill the 
mind with ideas worth the effort of getting and retain- 
ing ? 

Immediately following the argument for a 
natural movement of thought is the demand 
that thought have appropriate material upon 
which to develop, and in the discussion of ma- 
terial the evidences of the attractions of sci- 
ence for the author are abundant. The excur- 
sion which is a feature of schools now doing 
nature-study work was begun in this country 
in 1 88 1, in Mrs. AUing-Aber's class. The 
sharp differentiation between the picnic for 
young children and field study comes out 
clearly in the account of the little class study- 
ing the rocks. Equally plain is the discrimi- 
nation between an environment which furnishes 
food for thought and one which supplies what 
is known as busy work : 

Think of children gathered by fifties in thousands 
of schoolrooms spending the first years of school life in 
repeating trivial facts and ideas that have been familiar 
from babyhood ; in learning the symbols for these ideas, 



26 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

and in counting beans and bits of chalk. In such deal- 
ings with trite ideas the child gets little mental exer- 
cise, gets no addition to his knowledge save the written 
and printed symbols, gets no increase to his vocabulary 
and little facility in using it. For these slight gains he 
gives the freshest, best years of life, and exhausts in 
weariness of spirit the fountains of intellectual interest 
and enthusiasm. 

In all the above there is no demand for a 
recognition of the weakness and immaturity of 
childhood ; there is no exhortation to remem- 
ber that the child is not the undeveloped adult, 
but is a child. There is, however, the demand 
that the child shall be recognized with all his 
potentialities and powers. It is not the child 
in his feebleness, but in the greatness of his 
inheritance as a member of the human family, 
whose rights are vividly outlined. That he 
shall be neither a nonentity fed on trite ma- 
terial nor a machine laboriously endeavoring 
to mark time, but that he shall be treated as a 
being that grows through the exercise of his 
powers on nutriment that is fit, is the demand 
of this eloquent writer. 

The reasoning is lucid and convincing which 
proves the introduction of all sorts and kinds 
of myths and fairy tales into the course of 
study for little children to be absurd. But 
the attitude of a later age toward the myths 
of a former age is described as that of mere 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 27 

curiosity regarding the "more rudimentary 
phase of development." The anthropologist 
makes the myths more than a matter of mere 
curiosity; they are data for the scientific study 
of the evolution of the race, and, though the 
child-study specialist may, with his question- 
naire, accumulate answers which would easily 
show close relation between the thoughts of 
children and the religious and nature myths 
of the primitive races, yet the presentation of 
religious myths of antiquity to the six-year-old 
child is based upon a misinterpretation of the 
content of child -mind. The religious myth is 
valuable to the antiquarian and the anthropolo- 
gist, but it is not a reality nor even a curiosity 
in the realm of childhood. The discussion of 
myths and folk-tales terminates in the assump- 
tion of a position in regard to the subject- 
matter of ethics that would be assailed by 
kindergartners and primary teachers alike. 
That material Mrs. Alling-Aber would find, 
not in a content foreign to the experience of 
children and foolish to the experience of many 
adults, but in the existing social environment. 
To the objection that ethics must transcend 
the commonplace and the inadequate, she 
would reply that the teachers of little children 
were arraigning the moral structure in which 
they are effective, and hence were bringing in 



28 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

an indictment of themselves as ethically in- 
competent. Such a practical application of 
the question of the content of myths as a 
means of training in the virtues is invaluable. 
A serious consideration of it would necessitate 
a general readjustment of thinking upon the 
subject as to what furnishes the material which 
functions in the exercise of the virtues which 
are termed social. 

There are two points wherein Mrs. Alling- 
Aber's theory is not worked out in accord with 
some basic principles in the new education. 
The theories of modern psychologists in re- 
gard to the advantages accruing to the indi- 
vidual who has a large stock of co-ordinations 
are presented in a judicial tone and indorsed ; 
but the twofold character of the gain is not 
clearly apprehended. If the reactionary value 
of the co-ordination in making over the expe- 
rience, the mental capital, were fully compre- 
hended, manual training and kindred occupa- 
tions would be treated as fundamental in 
the course of study, rather than as "work 
which, if properly arranged, could be fol- 
lowed throughout each school year without 
taking anything from the results in the usual 
studies'' 

In presenting the question of the ends to be 
served by studies, there is something of the 



Some Types of Modem Educational Theory 29 

theory which has always obtained in regard to 
material suitable for the immature mind. The 
question concerning nourishment for the intel- 
lectual life is answered positively: "That 
which nourishes the adult will nourish the 
child." It would seem as if two constructions 
might be put upon this answer, but farther on 
we are told : "The child should have the adult 
world in miniature ; his playthings should be 
steps in some skill which is of use in the mar- 
kets of men. Playthings and plays should be 
direct preparation for practical life." All of 
this is out of harmony \yith the treatment of 
the teaching of science : " Do not bring nature 
to the child, but take the child to nature." 
"Never tell a child that which will take the 
charm from a personal discovery." One can 
but ask why the child's social world and its 
playthings shall be determined so inexorably 
for him, while nature shall be an inexhaustible 
mine which the child shall by right investigate 
independently. Only the pressure of time in 
making such a wide survey along paths not as 
yet well broken could have induced one so 
clear-sighted to advocate the acquisition of 
skill through playthings instead of the ac- 
quirement of technique and power through 
the construction of things necessary to the 
working out of the children's impulses. 



30 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

Like all educational theorists of the day, 
Mrs. AUing-Aber realizes the greatness of the 
problem involved in a right understanding of 
the individual in childhood and his develop- 
ment through membership in the social organi- 
zation. She would bring the social aspect to 
consciousness by a comparison between the 
social whole with the child as a member, and 
the child's body with one of its parts as a 
member. In this work, she would lay much 
emphasis on a comprehensive knowledge of 
the physical organism before beginning the 
comparison. The points of view from which 
various topics, such as the integral unit, labor 
and responsibility, equality, honor and dis- 
honor, are discussed, rest on the analogy 
which is set up between the physical body 
and the social whole, and the presentations 
are sound. 

In the discussion of physical culture as a 
means of expression, there is a curious return 
to the question of the social life. The analogy 
used in the conscious study of the individual 
and the social whole is not referred to, but its 
influence is evident. The statement is made 
that " ultimately every man lives in solitude, 
and with difficulty does he imperfectly impart 
his own intellectual and emotional states to 
his neighbors, or apprehend theirs." The 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 31 

principle which the student of the social devel- 
opment of the human being has recently 
worked out comes forward farther on in this 
remark about our judgments of others, but it 
is not recognized as a principle of ethical 
growth : "A man forms judgments about his 
neighbor and acts upon those judgments ; but 
those judgments are based mainly, not upon 
knowledge of his neighbor, but of himself." 
The inadequacy of the biological conception 
as a hypothesis for the investigation of the 
growth of individuals and the progress of 
society is the cause of Mrs. AUing-Aber's 
pessimistic attitude in regard to the solitari- 
ness of the soul and the narrow basis of social 
judgments. It is surprising that a writer so 
keenly appreciative of child life, and so sug- 
gestive as to the means of making that life 
strong and noble, should not have applied the 
conception of psychology to the questions of 
social and ethical grovv^th. This halting of one 
who is outranked by none as an intelligent 
pioneer in modern education helps to show 
the rapidity of the movement with which the 
study of everything pertaining to humanity is 
keeping abreast of the rapid movement in the 
investigation of nature and her laws. 

One lays this book down with the feeling 
that the educational advance from 1881 to 



32 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

1902 has been in increasing definiteness of con- 
ception of the meaning of education rather 
than in a comprehension of the practical con- 
ditions underlying the work with children in 
the school. 



III. EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.^ 

W. W. Speer. 

Throughout Mr. Speer's educational theory 
there runs the recognition of the law of cause 
and effect. This law is not a great impelling 
power in the conscious life of the individual ; 
it is an unvarying order of knowable events 
sustaining the relation of antecedent and con- 
sequent. The mathematical tendency toward 
exactness in thinking seems at times to indi- 
cate a restriction to a consideration of quanti- 
tative relations only, but this restriction is in 
the minds of the friends and critics of the 
theory under discussion rather than in Mr. 
Speer's own mind. From time to time his 
thought possesses a sympathetic quality and 
indicates a far-reaching insight that more than 
hints at a mind, not only highly mathematical, 
but poetic and philosophic. The principle 
running through the theory is that of the self- 
activity of mind ; but the practical check, the 
fact that mind is empirically conditioned, is as 
prominent in the discussion as is the working 
of mind in its free, self-initiated activity. The 
treatment of the cause and effect of self- 

* Intelligenc:, April, 1 9 o I . 
33 



34 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

activity is very brief ; so summary is it that 
one detects an agreement with Herbert Spencer 
wherein he places the stimulations from the 
environment yfrj^ in the mental act. It would, 
however, be a hasty judgment to conclude that 
"the presentation of significant wholes tending 
to the free effort which gradually brings things 
into right relation is a cause of self-activity,'" 
means that the tendency to activity is not there 
before the presentation. 

The environment and the physical organ- 
ism are posited as intelligible causes which 
are operative in conditioning mind in its 
growth. No time is expended in theorizing 
on the possible interpretations that might be 
put on the conditions influencing development. 
The practical situation in which the co-opera- 
tion of the home and the school is involved is 
brought clearly and incisively into the fore- 
ground. All sentimentality is rigorously forced 
into the background. So mathematically exact 
is the outlining of the duty resting upon the 
home in attending to the proper nurture of the 
bodily powers, not only by furnishing nutriment, 
but also by seeing that the requisite amount of 
sleep, rest, and exercise is taken, that there is 
developed a very definite idea of the co-opera- 
tion which the school has a right to expect 
from the home. In one sentence is the respon- 



Some Types of Modem Educational Theory 35 

sibility of suitable conditions in the home laid 
upon the parents : 

Much that is considered over-strain in the school- 
room, and is so because of the child's condition, is due to 
the parent's disregard of the fixed relation between 
food, rest, exercise, and nutrition, or, in other words, to 
the disregard of the dependence of mental and moral 
power upon the physical life. 

Too great stress cannot be laid on the value 
of this differentiation of responsibility and the 
plain statement of the duties of parents in 
affairs physical. An investigation of the non- 
hygienic customs that obtain as regards food, 
sleep, and exercise among high-school boys 
and girls would help explain much of the 
collapse that is attributed to adolescence. 

When one considers that the high-school 
membership is composed largely of the flower 
of the elementary-school membership, and 
that it is made up of those who have given 
attention to the instruction of their teachers, 
it is apparent that instruction in hygiene has 
little educational value. If the boys and girls 
in the high schools — the small percentage of 
those who begin a school course in the first 
grade — give almost no attention to the qual- 
ity of their food, to the needs of the body 
for rest and exercise, although physiology and 
hygiene are taught all along the line of the 



36 Some Types of Modem Educational Theory 

elementary school, then must the inference be 
drawn that the pupils do not believe their 
teachers and their teachers do not believe 
that bodily and mental health are in a large 
measure mutually dependent. 

Co-operation in this study of educational 
principles is not defined, however, as it is ordi- 
narily understood in the vocabulary of the 
school. It is not used in the sense of the 
parent's performing those duties which the 
teacher outlines ; it is so used as to make evi- 
dent, not only what each parent should do, 
but also what naturally follows from the dis- 
charge of the duties of each member of the 
co-partnership; for, on the other hand, the 
school should not merely receive a well- 
nourished, well-rested, well-exercised body to 
sit quietly at its desk ; it has a reciprocal duty 
to perform. That well-conditioned body must 
be trained so that it shall be utilized as the 
instrument of the mind in its communication 
with the world outside. And so not only the 
teacher is told that in the school the senses 
must be trained, and that " an impression which 
simply flows in at the pupil's eyes or ears, and 
in no way modifies his active life, is an im- 
pression gone to waste," but parents are in- 
formed that the "physical, mental, and spirit- 
ual are one and inseparable." "Sensing, 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 37 

feeling, and doing are not to be isolated in 
education." 

Out of these three, which must not be iso- 
lated, there have developed the three lines of 
training which are synonymous with the 
"Speer method" — sense-training, motor ac- 
tivity, and rhythmic work. Underlying the 
sense-training is the recognition of the evolu- 
tion of the differentiated senses out of one 
sense as an advance in power. From this 
foundation has developed much of the em- 
phasis which has been thrown upon exercises 
devised to strengthen one form of sense-per- 
ception at a time. This accentuation of the 
functioning of one sense is opposed to the 
generally accepted doctrine of nervous func- 
tion. The attempt to train the senses sys- 
tematically in isolation gives rise to many 
exercises which seem to endeavor to narrow 
the wide range of adjustments which are not 
only possible, but desirable. The various kinds 
of images that are involved in a single percep- 
tion show the futility, if not the wastefulness, 
of effort directed toward a conscious differen- 
tiation of the senses. It is true that the sea- 
faring man has a training of the sight which 
enables him to distinguish vessels at a distance 
which would make them invisible to a land- 
lubber; that the practiced ear of a Theodore 



38 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

Thomas will detect in one instrument the 
slightest variation from the standard in tone 
or time of that set for a hundred instruments 
in his orchestra ; that one particular sense acts 
as a fundamental in this or that trade or profes- 
sion. It is equally true that the wonderful 
evolution of power in every instance has been 
determined largely by the practical or aes- 
thetic ends of the individual. The sailor boy, 
in the imitative attitude and in the desire to 
distinguish the distant ship, has developed his 
power of sight at long distance ; and yet the 
landsman, with his richer imagery of sight, 
hearing, and touch, may see far more in the 
landscape, the painting, the woven textile, than 
can he who has merely the highly developed 
sense of sight at long range. 

A second element which has been made 
basic in modern educational theory, and par- 
ticularly in Mr, Speer's work, is that of motor 
activity. In lectures on teaching, the motor 
influence of the image and idea has been em- 
phasized until it has become a sort of educa- 
tional cant. The word correlative must ere 
long be writ large in James's well-worked "no 
impression without correlative expression," ^ 
if the educational value of motor activity is to 
be a positive quantity. The response that 

* James, Talks to Teachers. 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 39 

partakes of the nature of a *'glad movement" 
may not necessarily be a response to the stimu- 
lus of a work of art, the mere handling of 
which permits the children to move about. 
There is in this theory a persistent insistence 
upon a pleasing environment for the health- 
ful development of the mental power which 
begins in feeling and eventuates in character. 
But in theory as well as in practice it is neces- 
sary to distinguish between mere reactions 
and genuine responses to stimuli. In each 
activity there result images, but they may not 
have the content which makes for material for 
thought in connection with the object pre- 
sented. The reaction may be as void of con- 
tent as that in children who can pick up a 
dozen Perry pictures, photographs of the 
world's art treasures, and call them off with 
the volubility of the auctioneer enumerating 
the excellencies of the wares in his hands. It 
is a non seqiiitur that the aesthetic feelings are 
aroused because the names of works of art 
can be glibly repeated. Motor reaction may 
often be identified with voluntary attention ; 
and in such cases the content of the reaction 
is also identified with that which consciousness 
has selected for attention. The same general 
law holds in motor activity that was enun- 
ciated in sense-perception : the evolution of 



40 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

power is determined largely by the practical 
or aesthetic aims of the individual. 

The value of accurate observation of the 
world of the senses, and also the value of the 
ready response to worthy stimuli, are beyond 
estimation ; but there is necessity for careful 
study of the means by which observation and 
activity are secured. The revolt of many 
primary teachers against the wearisome rou- 
tine of the old education, the earnest desire of 
those same teachers for the joyous, free 
activity of childhood in the kindergarten and 
primary rooms, have made these two lines of 
training welcome in many schools. The fail- 
ure to identify the motive of the " sensing " 
or " doing " with an end which is neither the 
conscious sensing nor the doing for the sake 
of doing, eventuates in formalism and empti- 
ness. Much, if not all, of the criticism on the 
Speer method originates in the exercises that 
fail of this identification. 

The third element, rhythmic movement, is 
one which has received little intelligent atten- 
tion in education. Even teachers of music, 
the subject in which rhythm is recognized to 
the greatest extent, are, as a class, defective in 
appreciation of the value of rhythm in adjust- 
ment of mental and physical disturbances. 
Mr. Speer's presentation of the need of recog- 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 4i 

nition of feeling in expression and the influ- 
ence of harmonious rhythmic movement is 
sympathetic, true to nature. 

The method under discussion has been 
adopted by a large percentage of teachers who 
feel the need for an activity of miiid a7id body in 
the school, above and beyond that permitted 
by the old education. One large factor in this 
adoption has been the effort of Mr. Speer to 
harmonize self-activity and the three R's ; but 
the objection to teaching children reading 
before they have gained control of their powers, 
or have capital with which to utilize the material 
on the printed page, has developed in the work- 
ing of this theory until today its adherents and 
its author are opposed to the teaching of read- 
ing to all six-year-old children. Another fac- 
tor has been the inexpensiveness of dealing 
with observed things even though they be a 
fair grade of works of art, as compared with 
the cost of material in the exercise of the con- 
structive activities of the children. So long 
as teachers are obliged to make bricks without 
straw, they will use as the basis of their work 
in observation and manipulation the highly 
finished product which will not wear out or 
need replacing. The practical application of 
the results of his study will in time make Mr. 
Speer appreciate the educational value of 



42 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

crude material as a means to expression of the 
idea, rather than the finished product as the 
end out of which the means are sought. 

These educational principles, which have 
been evolved theoretically and practically in 
the study and in the class-rooms of elementary 
schools, are in harmony with the spirit of prog- 
ress that is working in twentieth-century ideas 
of education. It has its roots in psychology 
and in an understanding of child nature. 



IV. COURSE OF STUDY, 1900-1901. 
Francis W. Parker. 

The titles of the articles written by Colonel 
Parker in the Course of Study indicate a broad 
survey of the question of education: "The 
Philosophy of Education," " Pedagogical Psy- 
chology," "Unity in Ideal and Motive," "The 
Function of Expression in Education," "Prin- 
ciples of Correlation." The articles are among 
his latest presentations of the results of many 
years of theorizing and experimenting, and 
are therefore most satisfactory material upon 
which to base this study. 

In his writings and addresses Colonel Parker 
is always the advocate at the bar for a minor 
in a court of equity. In this capacity the 
movement of his thought is not constant in its 
method. It changes from argument to decla- 
mation, to exhortation, so rapidly as to bewil- 
der the reader, and sometimes to give rise to 
the impression that it is intuitional rather than 
logical. Notwithstanding the versatility of 
the thought movement, it is not difficult to 
search out and find the ideas which are its 
fundamentals. Chief among them is that 
which makes the aim of education the evolu- 
43 



44 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

tion of self-government in community life. 
Subsidiary to this idea is that of the means to 
attaining this end. The means are considered 
under two heads: (i) the subject-matter of 
study, which is creation or law; (2) the devel- 
opment of the individual through expression. 
Here is a theory of education which is 
founded on activity. It unifies the life of the 
human being in childhood and adult stages 
by making activity in the social organization 
the essential. Although this activity implies 
knowledge-getting and individualism, yet it 
does not seek them; it always makes for good- 
ness — the attainment of power for the good of 
society. After the statement, "The ideal of 
community life is the one ideal that is intrin- 
sically moral and practically religious," there 
is a discussion of the development of the indi- 
vidual for membership in the social organiza- 
tion. The citizen is defined as ''the noblest 
type of human being, one whose highest ideal 
is the good of others in the home, the commu- 
nity, the nation, and the world." This defini- 
tion is based entirely upon altruistic theory 
which assumes the ethical development as pre- 
ceding the social. The imposition of altruism 
upon children in the beginnings of community 
life is hostile to that spirit of education for 
which Colonel Parker stands. The recogni- 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 45 

tion of the alter as simply one pole of the rela- 
tionship in a common personality of the alter 
and ego is necessary for comprehension of the 
meaning of social life. But this cannot be 
derived from altruism alone. Its foundations 
are in egoism and altruism. Freedom does 
not come through complete repression of self 
or of others, hence the ideal of community life 
should involve, not only the duties^ but also the 
rights of the individual. 

Liberty and freedom are very fully discussed, 
though largely from the standpoint of aims, as 
something to be attained, rather than as con- 
ceptions which are active in the process of 
education. In one place we are told freedom 
is entirely a personal matter ; it is that which 
every human being may acquire for himself, 
through his own personal activity, and in no 
other way; and yet in another place we learn 
that the "struggle for freedom encounters 
ages of ignorance and bigotry." The practical 
situation, as presented in the ideal of freedom 
as developed in childhood, is met under a con- 
sideration of liberty, the two being differen- 
tiated as an internal, personal state and an 
external, political condition ; out of the dis- 
cussion of liberty as applied to nations and 
peoples comes at last the conclusion: ''The 
liberty of children must be restricted until 



46 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

they gradually acquire the power of right self- 
choice, i. e.f freedom." Had the philosophy 
been presented in full, rather than in outline, 
there would doubtless have been a discussion 
or a consideration of the distinction between 
restriction that limits only and restriction that 
is an act of intelligence on the part of him 
who restricts another. 

Turning from the great aim of education, 
the reader finds the first means presented 
under " Principles of Correlation" : 

Man and nature comprehend all subjects. These 
two are one in the Creator and the created. The 
essence of the knowledge of man and nature is law; and 
law has its function in life. Life, then, is the central 
subject of study. 

The tremendous advance of the theory which 
would make life the central study of education 
upon that theory and method which restricts 
the child in school to attempted interpretation 
of the printed expression of others' thoughts 
cannot be overestimated ; but the arrangement 
of all the material that life offers, so that chil- 
dren shall not be swamped in it, necessitates a 
study of the method of matter and the method 
of mind. Colonel Parker has met the first de- 
mand by a persistent effort to systematize the 
study of man and nature under the principles 
of correlation, and these have been made the 



Some Types of Modem Educational Theory 47 

backbone of the work of the Cook County 
Normal School and Chicago Institute ; and 
necessarily so, because "the earth is the 
Lord's, and the fulness thereof," seemed to 
change with the new subject of study to "the 
earth is the child's, and the fulness thereof." 
In the selection of subject-matter the com- 
munity life is at one time made the determin- 
ing factor : 

The needs of a growing community life (school 
grades) is the only proper guide to the selection of sub- 
jects of knowledge and skill for the course of study. 

At another time the individual is the deter- 
mining factor : 

There is therefore only one guide in the preparation 
of a course of study: knowledge adapted to the under- 
standing of the learner, knowledge that is nutritious, 
that is needed for immediate use. In broad terms, man 
is the demand and the universe of God the supply. 

It is undoubtedly true that in the early years 
of his life the child is busy making a general 
acquaintance with everything in the universe, 
and so the home and the school must furnish 
a stimulating environment without regard to a 
continuity of development of life ; but this 
does not necessitate a crowded environment. 
When, however, the first seven or eight years 
have passed, if the interests of the learner are 
to be evolutionary, then the school environ- 



48 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

ment must be so planned that answering the 
questions which he raises will necessitate his 
being in touch with the special movement of 
the fundamental of that inquiry in the world 
of thought. If the class is at work in history, 
the presentation of matter that will *' enlarge 
and strengthen public opinion," the " arousing 
noble feelings," and " presenting the grandest 
examples of manhood," will be useful ; but if 
the learner does not bring to bear his origi- 
nality and independence of thought, and also 
his knowledge in forecasting the future of a 
past which he is studying, then is he not in 
touch with the movement of history; for he 
does not investigate the causes and effects, the 
law that is operative in a given society at a 
given time. If he were investigating, he would 
utilize all that he could command from books, 
teacher, and self in finding out how society 
grew. It would be easy to illustrate this point 
in science, mathematics, literature, and all de- 
partments of the field of human inquiry. The 
problem of correlation would, under right con- 
ditions, be one for the learner, not for the 
teacher. 

On the other hand, the teacher would be 
deeply concerned to know the subject in its 
content and method far beyond the possibili- 
ties of knowledge for the elementary or the 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 49 

secondary-school pupil. The positing the uni- 
verse of God as the supply to man's demand 
in education is a great advance step ; but the 
emphasis on correlation is halting because of 
the non-recognition of the responsibility for 
scholarship which this step laid upon teachers. 
The second study (the method of mind) 
which life as the subject-matter of education 
necessitated has not been neglected by Col- 
onel Parker. As in the first study (the 
method of matter) one particular phase of the 
subject — correlation — carries the emphasis, 
so in the second study, one phase of mental 
activity — imaging — receives the stress of at- 
tention. Though analysis, judgment, inference, 
and reason are recognized, yet the image alone 
is so emphasized that one fails to see how the 
rich and crowded environment is to be the 
means to a development of the conceptive 
and reasoning powers in a high degree. This 
failure may come in a measure from the treat- 
ment of the image as a photograph, a rein- 
statement in its entirety of the precept : " A 
strong image is a close correspondence to an 
external object." With a theory starting from 
this definition there might be great attention 
paid to sense perceptual and to memory images, 
and yet, " as ascent is made to the stage of 
pure mentality or ideation at which the mind 



50 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

develops through its reflective activity, a de- 
gree of uncertainty, both in method and aim, 
be noticeable in its work."^ 

The articles on the image are made up 
largely of the answers and statements of the 
students in a class in educational psychology 
conducted by Colonel Parker ; hence they may 
not fully represent his theory, although they 
do present the outcome of the discussions for 
the student teachers. The frankness of the 
students is very attractive, and is also an in- 
dex of the colonel's power in securing free 
expression of thought in his classes. The 
students do not, however, seem to have a clear 
conception of the image functioning for an 
end ; it seems to be the end. Even the 
" growing image " which " is held in the mind " 
does not appear in the students' treatment, to 
function for an end, or to function between 
the individual and the general notion. 

In the treatment of the second means for 
attaining the great aim of education there is 
so much of the new education as to raise the 
query as to the propriety of relegating self- 
expression to a subordinate position in this 
philosophy. The intimate relation of mind 
and body is here recognized. There is a cer- 
tainty, not only of understanding, but of con- 
* See above, p. 9. 



Some Types of Modem Educational Theory 51 

viction also, in regard to that free activity of 
mind in its expression which makes for bodily 
grace and power. The definite, educative func- 
tion of each mode of expression is evidently a 
part of this philosophy, though it is suggested 
interrogatively, not positively. The gulf be- 
tween the idea of expression of the self and 
that of correlation of subjects is wide ; the 
thinking is clearer as to expression of the self. 

It is to be regretted that the discussion and 
conclusion of Colonel Parker regarding the 
reactive function of expression are not fully 
stated in his philosophy. Although James, 
Miinsterberg, Dewey, and Baldwin are given 
as references on this subject of the circuit, 
there is an uncertainty in regard to the value 
in this theory of the different expressions by 
the different writers. The brevity of treatment 
accorded the subject strengthens the belief that 
right here is the weakness in the philosophy. 

The wide range covered in the articles in 
the Course of Study gives some conception of 
the time and thought that have been spent in 
the endeavor to determine the subject and the 
method of education. To wrestle, not with 
the question of the adult mind in its relation 
to the world of nature, but with the question 
of the child in its immaturity and feeble be- 
ginnings, to take hold of the problems of 



52 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

nature and man, is to attempt the solution of 
the problem of the future of the race. The 
solution has been worked out, not fully but 
in large measure, in the thought of Colonel 
Parker. 



V. THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, 

1895-1902. 
John Dewey. 

There is a typewritten edition of Mr. 
Dewey's lectures presenting his philosophy of 
education, but that text is not in the hands of 
the public, and therefore is not available as 
the basis of this study. There are, however, 
books and many articles which have appeared 
in journals and magazines, and these furnish a 
rich mine in which to delve ; but so difficult is 
it for readers to consult a large magazine list 
that only a small part ' of the varied material 
at hand will be used. That selected small 
part contains, however, the essentials which 
determine Mr. Dewey's philosophy of educa- 
tion and make it typical of the modern move- 
ment which endeavors to found educational 
theory and practice on those vital functions 
of feeling, thought, and activity which make 
the life of the individual and of the race one 

^The School and Society; "The Interpretation Side of 
Child Study," Transactions of the Illinois Society for Child 
Study, Vol, II, No. 2 ; " Principles of Mental Development as 
Illustrated in Early Infancy," ibid., Vol. IV, No. 3 ; " Interest 
as Related to Will," Herbartian Yearbook, 1895, 2d supple- 
ment ; Elementary School Record. 

53 



54 Some Types of Modem Educational Theory 

of growth, of development. This, however, 
does not mean that the modern movement is 
destructive of all that is old in education. 

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and eternal 
care and nurture are the price of maintaining the 
precious conquest of the past — of preventing a relapse 
into Philistinism, that combination of superficial enlight- 
enment and dogmatic crudity. If it were not for the 
work of an aristocracy of the past, there would be 
but little worth conferring upon the democracy of 
today.* 

In taking a general view of Mr. Dewey's 
attitude toward the subject of education, one 
is impressed from the outset with the fact that 
nothing is presented in an isolated, unrelated 
condition ; that everything is viewed as one 
of a great complex of forces. But the investi- 
gation of the laws of the complexity which is 
called life is not begun in a hit-or-miss fashion ; 
the attitude and the approach toward the sub- 
ject of inquiry are those of the modern scien- 
tist. Instead of drawing up a scheme, a theory, 
to which all facts and conditions in school life 
must conform, he seeks a working hypothesis 
and tests it by its efficiency in explaining the 
familiar and the unexpected which are pro- 
jected into the foreground of the field of 
observation and practice in which the teacher 

* "Current Problems in Secondary Education," School 
Review^ January, 1902. 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 55 

Operates. The hypothesis gives a method of 
investigation, not a fixed ideal. 

An illustration of the working hypothesis as a 
means to the control of forces, a control which 
has made the past century famous in the history 
of invention might make the above clearer : 
The invention of the means of protection 
against lightning did very little toward recog- 
nizing the possibilities of electricity as a great 
social force. Although new inventions did 
follow the invention of the lightning rod, yet 
the wave that has within fifty years changed the 
habits and customs of modern domestic and 
commercial life by the introduction of the tele- 
graph, the telephone, the automatic fire-alarm, 
the electric bell, the electric lamp, the electric 
motor, the electric furnace, and the wireless 
telegraph, did not appear until the scientist 
began working upon the hypothesis that elec- 
tricity is a mighty force which might be made 
an agent of great practical and social value. 
When electricity acts in an unexpected way in 
a new type of machine, the hypothesis sets the 
minds of inventors at work devising means 
whereby this new feature in the force may be 
made to serve, not to destroy, the new inven- 
tion which might be an aid to the comfort and 
progress of humanity. It would help to clarify 
thought on educational theory and practice if 



56 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

we should come to a realization of the value 
of the working hypothesis as exemplified in 
the hypothesis of evolution, the conservation 
of energy, the undulatory movement of light, 
and others with which man has organized the 
world of nature as his aid in his world of 
thought and action. 

In taking up his investigation, Mr. Dewey 
has back of this particular inquiry the fruits of 
his research and thought on the all-compre- 
hensive question of philosophy : What is the 
meaning of life ? Not life here only, nor life 
hereafter ; not organic life only, nor mental 
life ; but life as presented in all phases of 
existence in the universe as known to man, is 
the something whose meaning is sought by phi- 
losophy. To narrow this question to a special 
subject, and ask what is the life-process of a soul, 
is for the time being to place the question of 
education in the field of that science whose 
particular problem is mental development — 
psychology. As life is treated in Mr. Dewey's 
psychology from the functional standpoint, his 
hypothesis, as one has a right to expect, is 
based on some form of continuous activity that 
works for a definite end, develops because of 
its striving, and stands also for the method 
or way in which power is developed in other 
modes of mental functioning. 



Some Types of Modern Edticational Theory 57 

In the study of the phenomena of infant 
life Mr. Dewey states his working hypothesis 
as follows : 

The principle of co-ordination or sensori-motor 
action supplies us with a centralizing principle — a 
principle which can be employed equally on the 
physiological and the psychological side.* 

Although the principle of co-ordination is freely 
referred to in the discussions of teachers, yet 
in the common conception of the term "co- 
ordination" or "sensori-motor action" there is 
lacking one point which is fundamental in Mr. 
Dewey's conception. In the common concep- 
tion, "the sensory stimulus is one thing, the cen- 
tral activity, standing for the idea, is another 
thing, and the motor discharge, standing for the 
act proper, is a third." To illustrate : High C 
is sounded on a piano as the initial tone in a 
piece which you are about to sing. In accord- 
ance with the conception stated, the sensation of 
sound is a stimulus which is made over by the 
central activity into an idea and is discharged 
by the vocal apparatus as high C. Now, if you 
will attend to your conduct in co-ordinating 
your hearing and singing sensations, you will 
see that from ear and vocal apparatus there are 
sensations to which you attend, and when you 
have co-ordinated these two sets of sensations 

*" Principles of Mental Development as Illustrated in 
Early Infancy." 



58 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

you sing C. There are stimuli from both the 
vocal apparatus and the ear; and in the stimu- 
lus from the former, as in that from the lat- 
ter, there are sensory and motor elements. If 
the co-ordination is difficult, it is easy to dis- 
tinguish the ear stimulating the throat, and the 
throat stimulating the ear, and so realize that 
each organ functions to stimulate and to re- 
spond to the other. As the degree of success 
in the functioning can be determined by the 
result as made known finally by the throat, we 
identify the reaction with the vocal apparatus 
which gives out the vocal tone through move- 
ment ; "but the entire act is the act of atten- 
tion in co-ordinating the two groups of stimuli 
coming from both ear and vocal apparatus." 
Careful observation of the self in setting up 
difficult co-ordinations will make plain the 
fact that while the act is going on there is an 
interaction of stimulus and response on the 
part of the ear to the vocal apparatus and vice 
versa. So this stimulating and responding oc- 
cur within the act of co-ordinating, not with 
the ear acting as stimulus only and the vocal 
apparatus acting as response only. This illus- 
tration is founded on an interpretation of a 
study made in the psychological laboratory by 
Mr. Angell and Mr. Moore, ^ and also on Mr. 

^University of Chicago Contributions to Philosophy, No. i. 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 59 

Dewey's " Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology " 
in the same publication. But of what practi- 
cal use is this in a study of education ? It 
brings out the body and mind aspects of the 
human being, and at the same time emphasizes 
the activity of mind — attention — in co-ordi- 
nating stimuli from body and environment ; 
environment in this conception is not a some- 
thing with which the human being must iden- 
tify himself; neither is mind a something 
which must endeavor to go through the pro- 
cess of identification with environment ; nature 
is not a something with which man must be- 
come one. It presents the individual mind as 
active at the helm, with body and environment 
as his tools, and also as gaining power through 
the act of attention in making co-ordinations. 
The result of a co-ordination is an experience 
in sense discrimination and in motor control. As 
one experience acts in reference to another, there 
is an increase in the complexity of the activity 
and also in the definiteness of adjustment. 

In order to interpret Mr. Dewey's concep- 
tion of the principle of co-ordination through 
the reader's experience and experimentation, 
the illustration has necessarily been placed in 
the stage of developed intelligence. In the 
article^ which states the hypothesis, he begins 

'"Mental Development as Illustrated in Early Infancy." 



6o Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

with the birth of the child as "it comes into 
the world with a tendency to see, hear, reach, 
grasp, strike, and so on, but with a ready-made 
ability to do none of these things;" he works 
from the tendency condition ; through the 
independent development of eye co-ordination, 
ear co-ordination ; through the development 
of larger co-ordinations which involve the es- 
tablishment of relations between the earlier 
independent co-ordinations ; through the 
dawning of intelligence when cross-reference is 
made between the established co-ordinations ; 
through the experimental adjustments to the 
intentional adjustments of movements to gain 
experience ; to the development of the image, 
the mental construction, and the co-ordination 
of the present with the past which culminates 
in the beginnings of language. The recon- 
struction of the adjustments made, the organi- 
zation of the different co-ordinations — the 
seeing, the hearing, the touching, the moving 
— by the infant working in its environment, are 
necessarily reviewed here because of the hy- 
pothesis on which the philosophy rests. In 
this study of the first year in the life of the 
human being there are implied those condi- 
tions on the mental side which obtain so long 
as his education continues. In its broad 
sense, education continues so long as readjust- 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 6i 

merits are made to the environment, physical 
and social. 

There is a most important element in this 
conception of growth that deserves special 
attention. The non-recognition of it is the 
greatest weakness in present-day educational 
theory. It is the return of the circular activ- 
ity into the impulse in which it originated, and 
the four effects resulting from this return: (i) 
an interpretation of the impulse as to its mean- 
ing and its worth ; (2) an increasing definite- 
ness of the impulse in its aim; (3) a greater 
certainty in its expression; (4) a develop- 
ment of its activity into a habit whose flexi- 
bility partakes of the nature of intelligence. 
Here is a crude suggestion as to the above : 
A person has an impulse to swing something, 
an Indian club. If, after he strives to co-ordi- 
nate his arm, wrist, and hand muscles with his 
image of the club swinging gracefully, easily, 
and forcefully, when he rejoices over the grati- 
fication of his impulse, he evaluates the 
impulse in terms of his arm, wrist, and hand 
muscular possibilities ; he feels more definitely 
what it can do ; he knows more certainly in 
what way the impulse will work out; he 
repeats the swinging from time to time, realiz- 
ing that he is nearer and nearer to a develop- 
ing of the swinging habit as one means of 



62 Some Types of Modem Educational Theory 

command of the marvelous God-given instru- 
mentality through which he works — the body. 
This also illustrates the idea of technique. The 
development of the recognition by the mind 
of difficulties which are subject to control 
through a knowledge of ways of manipulating 
material makes technique something more than 
the mere expression of the image ; it is also 
the beginning of the idealization of the mate- 
rial and the body as the tools or means of 
attaining a distant and at first somewhat indefi- 
nite aim. 

The discussion of attention is different from 
that given by other writers on education, but 
it is in harmony with the psychologic theory 
under consideration. Reflective attention is 
treated as a marked intellectual advance, not 
because of the development of the power to 
make one's self follow the questions raised by 
another, but because of the acquirement of the 
ability, not only to raise problems, but to raise 
problems requiring power to hold them, to 
deliberate, to reason upon them, to seek 
material that is relevant, so that it, attention, 
becomes a "habit of considering problems."^ 

The principle on the psychologic side which 
runs all through this theory — the principle of 
growth through the evolution of a complexity 

' Elementary School Record, No. 4. 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 63 

in the aim that is set by the mind itself, and 
also a certainty in the control of means by the 
mind because of the return of the movement 
by which technique is developed — finally is 
tersely expressed in a discussion on the train- 
ing of the will : 

Any way we take it, there is only person — man or 
child — at the bottom of it all, and whatever really 
trains that person, which brings order and power, initia- 
tive, and intelligence into his experie7ice, is 7nosi certainly 
training the will^ 

In all of Mr. Dewey's writings on education 
two factors are implied in the evolution of the 
life-process of a soul: "Individuals physio- 
logically and psychologically capable of 
education ; social habits and ideals whose 
application to the individual constitutes the 
process of education." This makes the vital 
functions of feeling, thought, and activity by 
means of which the race has wrought and 
developed in its environment, and through 
which the child today lives and moves and has 
its being in the occupations in its environment 
— the home and the neighborhood — the 
second of the two factors, and furnishes the 
material for work in the school. 

The subject-matter of the course of study 
necessary in a theory which makes growth of 

' Interest in Relation to the Will. 



64 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

mind synonymous with power to command the 
situation, must be subjected to as rigid an 
analysis, and must finally in its content be as 
true to life, as the psychologic strand which we 
have just been considering; hence, while the 
material used in the school would be such as 
to give the stimulating environment, it would 
be impossible at the same time to make it so 
profuse as to overload rather than give play to 
powers. This study of the way in which the 
child gets command of himself is carried over 
into the question of his relation early in life to 
society: 

We do not and cannot know what a child's life will 
be, either industrially or in its social quality. To 
attempt to educate him upon the basis of custom means 
to educate him for the present, and then when the future 
comes upon him leave him either stranded or wrecked. 
The only way to educate him for the flexible future is to 
give him the utmost command of himself and of the 
methods of civilization. Only, in other words, by giving 
the child command of himself now, and by giving him 
command of that self through the command of the 
fullest, most complete existing tools by which civilization 
makes progress, can we prepare the child for his future 
place, his future work.* 

The idea of continuity in mental growth 
through a developing rather than a completed 
subject of study is brought out very fully in 
the argument for occupations : 

* The Interpretation Side of Child Study, 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 65 

An occupation is of necessity a continuous thing. It 
lasts, not only for days, but for months and years ; it 
represents, not a storing of isolated and superficial ener- 
gies, but rather a steady and continuous organization of 
power along certain general lines. The occupations 
articulate the vast variety of impulses otherwise sepa- 
rate and spasmodic into a consistent skeleton, into a 
firm backbone.'' 

The qualifications and method of the teacher 
are very closely connected with the subject- 
matter. The teacher must have such an in- 
sight into and command of the subject that it 
would be impossible to prepare lessons which 
would be presented to the children. The em- 
phasis that is so generally laid upon the pres- 
entation of a carefully planned lesson dis- 
tracts attention from the necessity for that 
knowledge of the subject which can be attained 
by thorough and careful investigation only. 
As to the method of the teacher, that involves 
both the command of the content of the sub- 
ject and a psychologic insight into the stimu- 
lation and response of subject-matter and 
child-mind ; equipped in both of these lines 
teachers could not revel, as many do, in mak- 
ing a sharp distinction between the form and 
content values of a subject. Form and con- 
tent are only " an adjustment of means in- 
volved in social action and a reference to the 
realized ends." 

' Elementary School Record^ No. 3. 



66 Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

The community ideal which is worked out 
in School and Society does not posit an organi- 
zation of which the children are definitely con- 
scious. Subject-matter is dealt with in a way 
which necessitates a harmonious working to- 
gether of teacher and children, so that the 
community idea is developed through the exi- 
gencies of the school work. The children are 
members or citizens in the community because 
the method of work obliges them to be citi- 
zens ; there is not consciously first the com- 
munity, then citizens, and then work as citi- 
zens ; but there is work, community of work 
involving rights and duties in the community. 
Through the forms of active occupation, " the 
school has a chance to afifiliate itself with life, 
to become the child's habitat, where he learns 
through living." ^ 

Life is the subject with which this philoso- 
phy of education is concerned. Its every prin- 
ciple rests upon the truth that out of the life of 
today develop the weakness and ugliness, or 
the strength and beauty, of the life of tomor- 
row ; that the life of the child in its own time 
and strength is the hope and promise of the 
life of the adult ; that a growing sense of the 
worth of his own feelings, thoughts, and deeds 
is always back of the individual's appreciation 

* The School and Society, 

iLcfC. 



Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 67 

of the feelings, thoughts, and activities of 
others ; that this appreciation is developed as 
his relationship to others and that of others to 
him is made more true to life — and in this 
appreciation is the hope and promise of the 
life of society. 



CONCLUSION. 

In surveying briefly so extensive a field as that 
covered by these five educational thinkers, it has 
been necessary to leave untouched, and even 
unnoticed, many suggestive lines of thought. 

In undertaking this study, it was not the in- 
tention to enter into a consideration of all 
phases of each theory. The general aim was 
to search out the bases of the modern edu- 
cational movement, to note the variations 
which have marked the constructions made by 
different minds, and which have resulted in 
types or standards. 

Each theory has been found, in greater or 
less degree, to move about the idea of self- 
initiated activity. The interaction between 
mind and body has by each writer been as- 
sumed, not discussed, as inseparable from this 
fundamental activity. Though many teach- 
ers would dissent from a position which rec- 
ognizes the close relation between mind and 
body, yet these writers have each and all 
without hesitation taken an advanced stand. 
Their individual applications of the idea of 
body as the visible expression of soul-life re- 
sult in some of those variations which deter- 
mine different types of theory. 
69 



7o Some Types of Modern Educational Theory 

Each theory projects man as primarily a 
social being. The give-and-take responsibility 
of membership in a community of fellow-beings 
is presented at greater or less length in each. 
The individual applications of the idea of the 
school organization as the visible expression 
of community life result in some of those 
variations which give different types of theory. 

Each theory makes everything contribute 
toward the development of the highest form 
of life of which each soul is capable. The 
truth that thought in its activity is essentially 
the same in every mind, i. e., there is a 
thought-process, is the principle on which 
each proceeds to help the soul realize itself. 
The individual applications of the idea of the 
best means by which soul obtains its nutriment, 
and the reactionary influence of the activity on 
the impulse, result in some variations that be- 
come typical. 

The harmony in the great principles of these 
writers, and the variations of the different 
applications, show how nearly they are at one 
in their general aim ; and yet how widely dif- 
ferent may be the final results. A still closer 
study of the theories discussed would clarify 
the educational vision of all interested in the 
schools and in education generally. 



MAY 1 



9 190^ 



ICOPy Da. KJtAT.LIV. 

MAY 19 1902 

JUN. / 1502 



